These have fascinated me from childhood. My first encounter with one, was a doll similar in style to this one, probably 3 or 4 inches tall. It was a set of three. My dad bought it for me at an art museum’s annual festival.

At the time, they were difficult to find in the USA. She was alone for many years. I have about 30 of them now, some of which were gifts from my mother who encountered them at the Ukrainian Gift Shop, others of which I bought during a school year abroad, in Slovenia.

While I don’t need an unlimited collection thereof, I’m sad that the manufacturers are in distress.

1. The one who goes to Confession seeks forgiveness in the way our Lord prescribed instead of laying down his own conditions.
2. By confessing to a priest the Catholic benefits by an act of Christian humility not obtained by private confession.
3. By Confessing to a Priest the Catholic receives many Sacramental Graces that are not received outside of Confession that help him overcome his sin.
4. The Catholic has an objective and solid assurance of forgiveness by the audible words of absolution from the priest.
5. The Catholic can secure sound advice about his or her spiritual life and the will of God concerning reparation or restitution to be made, while the other is left to uninstructed self-guidance.

Our confessor is the doctor of our soul. He assists us with overcoming the arrows of sin, from our enemy, that found their mark .

Q. This website tells me that I can lose my salvation; that I won’t go to heaven if I have committed sin (and not yet repented) at the moment when I die; So what I take from this is that The Gift of Salvation, the price paid for my sin…well, it sounds like the Gift was not complete..was not a perfect Gift? Right?

A. The gift was indeed perfect. But it requires a proper reception from us. Otherwise everyone would be saved regardless of how they lived. There would be absolutely no use for Churches. Of what use would they be? It would not matter, since everyone was going to Heaven anyway, simply because of Jesus’ perfect Git.There are people who believe this way–it is called Indifferentism. And, yes, you certainly can lose your salvation if you die with mortal sin unconfessed and unrepented of. See Ez. 18:24
And my post Can We Lose Our Salvation?

Q. You are telling me that I as a born again christian with a real relationship with my Lord and in a moment of weakness I commit a particular sin and the next instant was “hit by a truck” (so to speak) or a “bomb” BEFORE I could respond to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, confess my sin…my salvation would be nil..I’d spend eternity in Hell.

A. Only God Knows. The Church warns her children to avoid sin. I can only say what Scripture says about sin that is unto death. I John and St. Paul lists, in several different books some of the deadly sins or sin unto death.

Did you read Ezekiel 18? The Catholic Church does not say who is in Hell or make that sort of judgment, so neither will I.But any born again Christian with a real relationship with Christ would be an even greater traitor, than your average Joe, if after a life of blessing and grace he willfully committed a grave sin. It would be slap in the face of Our Lord. But in the last instant of life he might receive a further grace from God to repent with his dying breath. We don’t teach what tickles the ear but the truth and leave all to the mercy of Jesus.

Q. I want to ask you something. If you personally, as a Catholic, had parents who were born again practicing christians in a protestant church, how would you as a Catholic be praying for them ..and how would you handle their death?

A. Well, both of my parents were very committed “born again” Christians and my father died two years after I was received into the Catholic Church.

I pray(ed) for their conversion to the Catholic Church. Because it is the fullness of Truth and so beautiful and deeply satisfying. But they really didn’t want to hear about it. They were filled with misconceptions about the Catholic Church. They loved me and respected by decision but it grieved them. Nevertheless, they both came to the Easter Vigil at which I received my sacraments and was received into the Catholic Church. And they came again the next year when our four youngest children entered the Church. I feel confident of their salvation but I still pray for them. I trust them to the mercy of God and am at peace.

Q. Please explain to me why you “still” pray for them?

A. For my mom that she would persevere to the end and for conversion to the Catholic Church. For my dad’s comfort/release from Purgatory.

Q. So you are telling me that when I as a protestant die my child & her family, catholic, can have no peace about where their mom/m-inlaw /grandmother will spend eternity?

A. No, we can be reasonably sure and at peace; as i said I was regarding my dad. Purgatory is on the way to Heaven. If you make it to Purgatory you know you will be in Heaven once you have been purified.

Q. How does one get out of purgatory?

A. Release from Purgatory is determined by God. When the soul is sufficiently purified for the Vision of God they are admitted to Heaven. No one knows when this occurs, unless God gives a special revelation, which is unusual.

You need to think about a few things. I’ve read that you may have been in cahoots with the photographer who publicized your affair, in order to force his hand so he’d have to choose between you and the church.

Bread From Heaven: Protestants forget that both Adam and Eve were created without sin. Most of the Angels did not sin and people in Heaven do not sin and that does not make any of them God. So sinlessness is a human trait that God originally bestowed upon human beings. It was also His desire that they remain sinless. Mary is human. Her sinlessness makes her special but not divine in any way. And she is the mother of our Savior she is not a savior.

Comment: The point not taken here is that ALL of the beings you reference, Adam/Eve, angels, people in heaven have the ability to choose sin or not.

Response: That is true, they have free will and so are able to choose to sin or not. But 2/3’s of the angels chose NOT TO SIN. So they are still sinless. The people in Heaven choose NOT TO SIN. So, they are now sinless. Adam & Eve were created without a fallen nature and were therefore NOT DESTINED to sin like the rest of us. Mary also was created without a sin nature and likewise able to choose not to sin by the grace of God. And she, unlike Adam and Eve resisted the temptation to sin her whole life.

Comment:Adam/Eve sinned, angels sinned against God’s will, people in heaven sinned while they were on this earth.Response: OK, Scripture tells us that Adam, Eve, and some of the Angels sinned. But where in Scripture does it say that Mary sinned? What sin did she commit?

Comment: Mary sinned for she was human.

Response: Where in Scripture does it say that God created human beings to BE SINFUL? Part of their basic nature? Normally human beings die as well as sin. But we were not created originally to DIE. Death entered in after the Fall. Therefore, God did not create us with Death as a required attribute of our human nature. Some people in the OT did not die–Enoch & Elijah. Just because, by the power of God they escaped the experience of death does not somehow make them anything other than human.

Comment: Sinlessness is a trait of God not of humanity,

Response: God is sinless, that is true. But where does it say that ONLY God is sinless? What about the angels who remained loyal to God. They are sinless but they are not Gods.

Comment: You stated how God would have wanted a perfect vessel for his son to be born. If you continue with this logic, than how would God want Mary conceived? Into sinfull parents and then her vessel would not have been pure. And what about her grandparents? And their parents and you can see how this need for perfection grows exponentially which means somewhere in history there is an entire race of sinlesss beings.

Response: We do not teach that Mary’s parent’s were sinless. Mary was a creature. Jesus was God Incarnate. For the God incarnate to dwell in perfect purity in Mary’s womb is more fitting than any necessity for Mary conceived without sin, to dwell in perfect purity. If Mary’s parents had been sinless then she would have received her perfected human nature from them but she received it directly from her Heavenly Father.

Comment: Mary was endowed with grace by God, because she was good, not perfect.

Response: Where might this be found in Scripture? We of course believe Mary was endowed with grace that removed the inherited sin nature and chose to be obedient to God her whole life.

Since the Deep in History Conferences began we have journeyed together from the time of the Early Fathers to the beginning of the Catholic Church here in North America. October 23rd 2009 marks a new beginning in our journey to the past as the Deep in History Conference turns to the theme of the History of Catholic Doctrine.

Once again the focus of these weekends is to assist both Catholics and non-Catholics in their understanding what it means to be Deep in History, Deep in Scripture and Deep in Christ. In 2009, we will begin on the “rock” looking to understand the question of Authority: The Pillar and Bulwark. Read the rest of this entry »